Mr. Musso is a Managing Director of the Areté Group based in Atlanta.
Mike is a seasoned financial and operational turnaround professional with over 30 years of C-suite, M&A, governance and restructuring leadership. His deep expertise as a successful change agent is built upon his C-suite experience as a serial and interim CEO, Chief Restructuring Officer, and Chief Transformation Officer. Mike also possesses experience as a Director and Board Member for distressed and healthy companies under public, private, and PE-sponsored ownership structures.
Mike’s experience is diverse and unique. His wide base of knowledge includes over 30 years of C-suite leadership, private equity M&A, and in- and out-of-court turnaround and restructuring leadership. He possesses a “blue-chip” corporate foundation with over a dozen years at P&G, Pepsi, and Frito-Lay and over a decade of Private Equity C-suite experience prior to building his reputation as a trusted turnaround and restructuring advisor.
Prior to joining Areté, Mike was a Managing Director and the Consumer and Retail Restructuring Practice Leader at KPMG. Within KPMG’s Deal Advisory and Strategy team, he led a significant number of successful restructuring and performance improvement engagements with over $25B in combined debt. Before joining KPMG, he built his T&R foundation at Conway MacKenzie/Riveron where he was a Senior Managing Director and Atlanta Office Leader. Prior to that he was a Managing Director, Atlanta Office Leader and Executive VP Business Development at Morris Anderson, in 2011, he was awarded the TMA Small Company Turnaround of the Year award for Cosmolab/Specialty Packaging Group!
While Mike has proven experience across many industry sectors, he is regarded as a subject matter expert in consumer and retail, in particular consumer packaged goods and grocery/ mass merch/e-commerce. He has been a trusted advisor to dozens of consumer brands and retailers including Gibson Guitars, Philips Electronics, Epiphone, Mudpie, Hyperice, American Greetings, Papyrus, Barnes and Noble Education, Lexol, Leisure Bay Spas, Lidl Supermarkets, Burts Bees, Strack and Van Til Food Markets, Diamond Crystal Brands, Wallace Hardware, Blue Star Foods, Dicarina Panama, King Kutter and Virginia Candle Company. Additionally, Mike has built a niche in advising companies in the beauty care manufacturing sector companies and brands that have a significant concentration with Amazon.
Mike is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and has a deep passion for his VOLS, where he is a speaker at the Haslam School of Business and enjoys many fall trips to Neyland Stadium.! He and his wife, Kim, have five children, three grandchildren, and four Havanese puppies. While he loves running, fishing, and traveling, his lifelong passion is in Photography!